Too Sad For Words

By Erin in News on Jul 10, 2006 11:45AM

This story has been haunting us all week.

Last week, Marie Campbell instructed her six-year-old son to go to the "lost children" tent at the Taste of Chicago. According to the Trib, the little boy wandered around the Taste until he was spotted by police—by the festival's end that day, Campbell never returned. This weekend, the 29-year-old turned herself in, and on Sunday authorities charged her with one count of felony child abandonment.

What really got us when we first heard about this, as it does with so many other cases of its nature, is the thought of this obviously desperate mother knowingly leaving her little kid to fend for himself amongst all of this merriment. There doesn't seem to be any indication as to how long he was actually walking around on his own, but it kills us to think about the time between Campbell leaving her kid and when authorities picked him up - with the history of domestic problems Campbell has had in regards to her son, Chicagoist wonders if this little guy knew something was amiss and how frightened he may have been.

Even worse, over the weekend the Trib reported that Campbell has on at least one occasion tried to reach out for help - going so far as to lock herself in a closet to keep from harming him and alerting child welfare authorities - but nothing seemed to stick. The Sun-Times says today that Campbell could no longer deal with her son's learning disability so she abandoned him at the Taste. Chicagoist isn't saying we agree with anyone leaving their kid in potentially dangerous situations, but we can't exactly get behind the idea that this woman is the devil incarnate, either.

Sunday's newspaper reports seemed to indicate that authorities were feeling pretty similarly. Campbell is scheduled to appear in court today.